This month, the shelter has reached a milestone. El Camino Homeless organization has helped 108 individuals and families find permanent housing. A San Luis Obispo native who left for Missouri and found her way back is among the record-setting numbers.
Krystal Bair received a notice last week that she and her girls will be moving into a new home.
“It’s been a long four years," Bair expressed.
Formerly finding her way back to San Luis Obispo County, Bair owned a home in Missouri. Two cars sat in the driveway. One day, things took a turn for the worst
“I got hit by a car," Bair said. "A 17-year-old didn't look where he was going and whipped out of his parking spot and took out my legs.”
Multiple surgeries later, Bair packed all she had left to her home county. The mother of three then put her name on ECHO's waitlist. The organization then found room for the four of them while giving them what they needed to get back on their feet
"Our services start the day that someone asks for help, not the day that someone gets into our campus," Director of Development and Operations Austin Solheim said. "That means connecting them with resources. [It] could be helping them get their vital documents, their ID, their social, their birth certificate, and point them in the right direction."
“When you're the only one to take care of three, you feel bad and you go to bed crying every night and you worry constantly," Bair said. "What they did was they lifted that for me. They allowed me to move into town and gave me a place to rest.”
Last year, ECHO helped 201 people into housing. Operations Director Austin Solheim says they’re already on pace to beat that this year.
“When someone comes in, the goal is to try to get them housed within 90 days," Solheim said ."Sometimes it's quicker than that. Sometimes it takes a little bit longer, but it depends on that individual circumstance. And our goal is to work with them one-on-one, meet them where they're at, help them identify those barriers, and climb over them with individualized case management plans.”
For Bair, that time is now.
“I'm just waiting for them to clean out a unit and tell me which one it is and when I can move in," Bair smiled.
